Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-12-29
RUSSIAN CRUELTY.
HeARTLEss METHODS OF EXTRACT
ING TESTIMONY.


Department of Justice-How the Thirst
for vengeance Is MISUNDERSTANDING
Young Mother.
l have space only for brief reference to
the many other methods of extorting testi-
mony from arrested persons which are
practiced By the gendarnes and the ofncers
of the department of justice One oil the
most cruel of them, il seems to me, Is the
custom of terrifying old and feeble parents
INTO the belief that their SONS or
daughters will inevitably be hanged unless
they confess. and then sending the poor old
people. trembling with terror and blinded
with tears, to make an agonized appeal to
their imprisoned children in their cells. Inc
officials know very well that the children
will not be hanged-that it is extremely
doubtful whether they will even be brought
to trial. They are kept in prison simply be-
cause the procureur hopes ultimately to OBJ
tain information from them. If the torture
of solitary confinement can be intensified by
adding 10 il the entreaties Of half frantic
parents, 50 much the better. little fright
will benefit the old people and teach
them to look after their children more
closely, and the children's obstinate deter
mination not to betray their friends will per-
hans be broken down by sight of the grief
and misery Of their parents. 1t is plan
which. to the official mind, works benefi-
Gently both ways.
The aged mother of an exile whom l
met in Trans Baikal was made to be-
6eye that her son would certainly
be hanged unless he told all that
he knew, and then, upon condi-
ton that she should try and persuade him to
confess, she was allowed 10 60 to his cell. A
terrible scene followed, in which the white
haired mother, frenzied with fear and ehok-
ing with sobs, knelt to her son, chung about
his legs and tried to press her tear wet face
to his feet, as she implored him, by his love
for her, by her gray hairs, 20 promise that he
would answer the questions of the gendarmes.
The strain of such a scene upon the emotions
and the resolution of a prisoner who is weak
ened and depressed by months of solitary
confinement, who loves and reyerences his
mother, and who sees her for the first time
since his arrest, and perhaps for the last time
before he goes to Siberia, is simply heart
breaking. The mother finally departs in de
spair, bidding her son goodby as she would
bid goodby to the dying while the son lays
I'D the memories of this bitter hour-tht
cruel deception of his mother, the torture OF
himself and the attempt to make the most
sacred of human feelings serve the purposes
of the police-as memories which will steady
his nerves and steel his heart when the tint
comes for vengeance.
This playing upon the deepest and most in
tense of human emotions as a means of ex
torting information from unwilling witnesse.
is practiced more or less in all Russian pris
ons where political offenders are confined
One prisoner, for example, after months o
solitary confinement, is promised an inter
view with his mother Filled with glad an
ticipations, he follows the guard out througl
the long, gloomy corridor into the prisol
court yard, where the mother is sitting on
rude prison bench forty or fifty feet from tn
! door through which he emerges. At tn
sight Of the well remembered, loving face
changed and aged by grief since he saw
last, his heart overflows with pity and ten
derness, and he rushes toward her with tn
intention of taking her into his arms. He
at once stopped by the guard, who tells hir
that the interview is not to take place herr
but in the reception room of the prison, t
which he is thereupon conducted He waii
impatiently ten minutes-fifteen minutes
half an hour-and at last the door opeus. A
he springs toward it he is met, not by h
mother, but by the procureur, who asks hi
whether, after this further period of refe
ton, he has changed his mind with regar
to answering questions. He replies that
was brought there, as he supposed, to 8
his mother, not for examination. tt
procureur, however, informs him that il
terviews with relatives are privileg
not granted to obstinate and refractol
prisoners, and that if he has nothir
to add to his previous statements
will be taken to his cell. Disappointed al
embittered the young man goes back to so
tary confinement with new cause for hatr
and an intensified thirst for vengeance, VIII
the heart broken mother, whose misery
only been increased by this brief glimpse
her son under guard and in prison dress,
turns to her distant village home.
In another case which came TO my know
edge in Siberia, the prisoner was a YOU
married women with baby in her arms
refused to answer questions intended to eli
eliminating evidence against her friends, a
the genderme officer who was conducting I
examination threatened if she continued {
stinate. to take her child from her Sue ma
pathetic appeal to the pricureur. and ask
him whether there was any law under viii
the gendarme officer could deprive her of |
child if she refused to testify. The prOcure
instead Of giving her a direct answer, t,
her that 1.-THE prudent course for her to pl
sue would be not TO raise question as to
legal authority Of the examining officer, |
TO tell him truthfully all she knew; then
was certain that be could not take her CHI
sfrom her In the face OF u threat SO terri
ing to young mother-she was not INT
than 90 years Of age when l made her
quaintance in Siberia-she adhered to
determination not to betray her friends I
babe was finally left i'll her possession,
she suffered weeks of tOrturing apprehensi
the mere remembrance Of which bathed
face with tears as she told me the story.
have devoted much space to these i'll
trations OF the use of prison confinement 8
means of torturing political prisoners il
making confession, partly because my ne
books are full of records of such cases VIII
were everywhere forced upon my attent
in Russia, and partly because it seems to
to explain more clearly than any other +
or set of facts the state of mind in which
called ''terToristlcn activity origina
Whatever view one may take of the eve
in their moral aspect, one can see that 81
causes might be adequate to produce such
suits without the ascription to the Russ
revolutionists either of homicidal insanity